"Why are hearts cold," etc. – This story the Master told during a stay near Sāketa, about a brahmin named Sāketa. Both the circumstances that suggested the story and the story itself have already been given in the First Book. [1]

[235]...And when the Tathāgata had gone to the monastery, the Brother asked, "How, Sir, did the love begin? "and repeated the first stanza: –

Why are hearts cold to one – O Buddha, tell! –

And love another so exceeding well?"

The Master explained the nature of love by the second stanza:

"Those love they who in other lives were dear,

As sure as grows the lotus in the mere."

After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth: – "These two people were the brahmin and his wife in the story; and I was their son."